The mutual’s annual results reported a 14% increase in mortgage lending last year, growing last year’s mortgage advances from £77m to £88m.
The society is now planning an even more ambitious 2013 with advanced plans to take part in the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme which it hopes will boost lending this year by a third to around £120m.
“We are close to joining the Funding for Lending Scheme,” chief executive Chris White told Mortgage Solutions.
“It is an intense process but we are now on the home straight. We have had several visits and audits from the Bank of England.”
White added that the building society sector had a growing appetite for lending and several other mutuals were also looking at taking part in the scheme.
“There are more building societies interested in the Funding for Lending Scheme and we will see more making use of this to level the playing field for smaller building societies.”
The lender made a return to the interest-only market at the end of 2012, said it had already received £27m of mortgage applications this year and was eager to continue growing.
“We have been active in the high LTV market and have been using effective underwriting rather than relying on credit scoring. Our arrears are very low,” White added.
“We have a wide range of products and we are competitive across our range. Last year we could have completed even more mortgages if we had the systems in place, now we’re more geared up to do that and we are confident the demand is there.”
